Welcome to part 2 of our beginner’s guide to collecting coins.
Here we’ll have a look at storing rare and valuable coins.
How to read condition reports.
And how to buy safely for your collection.
How to store your coin collection
The Bank of England's gold stores. You don't need to be this careful, but you do need to account for the weight of your coins.
Numismatists have a head start on stamp collectors.
Coins are meant to last.
They’re typically extremely robust.
However, “made to last” is not the same as “made to last” in superb condition.
Coins are susceptible to damage and aging and need to be looked after carefully.
This should only very rarely extend to cleaning them yourself beyond gentle wiping off of dirt or grease with a lint-free cloth.
You’ll keep the coins free from that grease in the first place if you wear cotton gloves or similar protection when you handle them.
And, as with most collectibles, you should handle coins as little as possible.
Coins should be stored individually if at all possible. The most common damage to coins is “bag damage” that results from them rubbing together when crammed into bags.
This means envelopes, albums, pockets or draws.
You should look for acid-free or inert storage media.
You’ll find both plastic and paper options available.
As your collection becomes larger or more valuable you may wish to add security storage.
While you don’t want to handle your coins often, you do want to look at and display them, so some form of ordering and indexing is needed.
Boxes, draws, shelves and so on can all be found online.
Coins, in large numbers, are heavy so take the usual precautions to account for that.
Coins in production at the Royal Mint. Keep yours separate from each other.
Don’t overload a single box or shelf.
Anything precious should be stored carefully.
While coins are robust they should be kept in a relatively stable temperature, away from sources of water, and pollution and fumes.
Coin grading reports
The price you pay for a coin can be very dependent on its condition.
The Royal Mint uses the British system.
There is also a numerical grading system called the Sheldon Scale that gives a point score to a coin. This is commonly used by American collectors and sellers.
British coin grading starts with:
Fleur De Coin
The best of the best in mint condition. Coins were often struck by hand, and that means some aren’t well struck, a FDC coin will have been well struck (is well centered) and have good lustre and be basically unused and visibly so.
Uncirculated
Usually abbreviated to UNC, uncirculated coins are unused. They will be in excellent condition but have some flaw - usually from production - that stops them from being FDC.
This Yugoslav coin is graded as uncirculated with some faint handling marks.
Extremely Fine
EF coins have only small wear and tear from being in circulation that take close examination to spot.
Very Fine
VF coins have flaws from wear on the high points of the relief. This damage should be small in area or effect .
Fine
Fine coins show that they have been used. But they are still good enough to collect and display.
Sheldon Scale
The Sheldon Scale runs like this:
1 - base level
2 - fair
3 - very fair
4, 5 6 - good
7, 8, 10 - very good
12, 15 - fine
20, 30 - very fine
40 - extremely fine
50 - about uncirculated
60, 65, and 70 are all mint designations, depending on the area of original lustre remaining.
Buying coins safely online
Coins can be forged.
And they can be misrepresented.
But, you don’t need to go into the coin collecting world too burdened by fear.
This George II Crown has been looked after extremely well.
If you shop carefully, and most of all do your research before you shop, you should have a very good and very safe time.
There’s a huge community of online coin collectors. Join some forums, follow some YouTube and social media accounts and get learning.
When you buy, you should take the usual precautions you would take when shopping online.
And with coins you should look for evidence of what they are.
This is called provenance and can include documents or sale, photographs, certificates of authenticity and so on.
Make sure you’re aware of what rights you have and that you’re dealing with someone in a legal jurisidiction where you can use them if you need to.
Buying rare coins now
We’re delighted that you’re interested in coin collecting.
We list a small proportion of what we currently have for sale here.
And, if you’d like to know more, you’d like more guides like this, and you want to know when we get new items in (plus discounts!), then sign up here for our newsletter.
You’ll never miss out again.
